Credits include Get Smart

Leonard Stern, a producer, writer and director who worked on some of the most memorable American comedy series of the 20th Century, has died at the age of 87.

He started his career writing for the likes of Abbot and Costello, Phil Silvers, and Steve Allen.

He became a regular writer on the two versions of The Jackie Gleason show in the mid-Fifties and late Sixties – as well as his TV sitcom The Honeymooners.

But his biggest hit was the spoof spy series Get Smart, which he produced as well as writing several episodes.

His other credits include producing the lighthearted crime drama McMillan And Wife, starring Rock Hudson, and writing the 1985 the action-thriller Target, starring Gene Hackman.

He died of heart failure in Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles on Tuesday, leaving a wife of 55 years.

Published: 9 Jun 2011